SEBI plans to introduce additional incentives for first-time woman investors in MFs

To encourage greater participation of women in mutual funds, markets regulator SEBI is planning to introduce additional incentives for investments by first-time female investors, its chief Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Friday.

"Financial inclusion will remain incomplete unless women are equally represented," Pandey said at an event organised by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).

"...We are thus also envisaging to introduce an additional distribution incentive for investments from first-time women investors," he added.

He said that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is taking a series of measures to facilitate and encourage the industry, and one such recent proposal is to incentivise distributors for investments from first-time individual investors in B30 cities (tier 2 and tier 3 cities).

The move will not only bring new participants into the fold but also extend the reach of mutual funds into underrepresented regions, contributing to deeper financial inclusion.

Also, to provide greater flexibility for product innovation, improve clarity, and address the issue of overlap in the portfolio of schemes, Pandey said SEBI is reviewing the categorisation of mutual fund schemes.

Based on the feedback received from the consultation process, next steps will be taken, he added.

"These measures are expected to facilitate the industry to become more transparent and investor-friendly," the SEBI chairman said.

Recently, SEBI, as part of its ease of doing business and compliance simplification measures, has reviewed reports and filings submitted by mutual funds.

Based on the review, the regulator has decided to discontinue the requirement of filing over 52 reports, notices, and addendum with it by the asset management companies (AMCs).

Going ahead, over the next few months, the regulator will also be working towards a comprehensive simplification of mutual fund regulations. The aim is to ease compliance for the industry while continuing to safeguard investor interest, Pandey said.